Any time someone bumps it it gets some traffic. Epi used to joke that he could tell when someone bumped it because he'd get a couple new sales of Dread.
But lots of folks (including Piratecat) are busy at GenCon right now.
What are your ideas?
Gencon! Silly me, that completely slipped my mind. Thanks for the reminder.
I have a few things I want to run past people, but I'll start with one, for now.
I'm planning to run the scenario "Aphrodite's Harvest" (originally written for All Flesh Must Be Eaten - it can be found
here for those unfamiliar with it) for Dread.
The very basic overview is this: Earth has sent a colony ship filled with donated tissue and brain scans on a trip that will take hundreds or thousands of years, to a new world. The idea being that when the ship reaches the new planet, the computer uses the donated tissue to grow clones of the original volunteers, then downloads the brain patterns into the clones, to create new colonists, who are duplicates of a group of people who donated all of this back on earth. The command crew is awoken when the ship reaches orbit, they go down to the planet and get a sample of an alien bug that infests them and kills them all, and then the computer grows new copies of them to try again. The PCs are the second batch of clones, just waking up to discover something terrible has happened.
Now, alien-insect-larval-infection-zombies are certainly good horror fodder, but for me the potential for real horror in this scenario is early on, when the characters realize that they have already been awakened from cryosleep once, and died horribly, and that this is their second go-around. They then encounter either zombified or murdered versions of themselves. However, I feel like that horror is lessened at least a little bit, if they start the game already knowing they are clones. They just don't know they are the second batch of clones. I think it would be much more disturbing if they were (or believed they were) their original selves from Earth, until they learn they are clones, and the second batch at that.
I figure there are three possible ways to accomplish this:
- The command crew were the actual, original people, shipped into space in cryo-sleep. They were awakened by the computer, found the insects, and died. The computer then used cloning facilities that were on the ship for a different reason (maybe the colonists were meant to be clones, but the crew were "originals" for some reason) and backup digital scans of the crew's brains to create clones/copies of them.
- The command crew (as well as all of the colonists) are all clones, but the knowledge of this was edited from their brain scans, thus they awaken believing they are the originals. When the second command crew awakens and discovers the remains of the first, this forces them to face the reality that they are--and were always going to be--clones.
- When they are first released from their growth wombs, clones with digital brain scans downloaded have slightly fuzzy/scrambled memories for a little while. They know who they are and why they are here, but just naturally assume they are the Originals from back on earth, until their memories become fully clear and they recall that they were always meant to be clones (or, until they encounter the horror of their previous selves.)
In the first case, there were only ever two sets of the command crew: the Originals from Earth, who were shipped via cryosleep and were killed by the bugs, and the clones who replace them (the PCs) who have no reason to think they are clones, until confronted with the truth.
In the second and third cases, there are three sets. They go like this:
Second Case: Originals on Earth, who donated their genetic material and brain scans, but didn't actually travel; first set of clones grown when the ship reaches orbit, who have no reason to believe/realize they are clones (edited brain scans) who are killed by the bugs; second set of clones grown after the first set dies, who have no reason to believe/realize they are clones (edited brain scans) until confronted with the Horrible Truth {tm}.
Third Case: Originals on Earth, who donated their genetic material and brain scans, but didn't actually travel; first set of clones grown when the ship reaches orbit, who don't initially remember they are clones (memory gaps from awakening process) who are killed by the bugs; second set of clones grown after the first set dies, who don't initially remember they are clones (memory gaps from awakening process) until confronted with the Horrible Truth {tm}.
I hope all of that makes sense.
In any case, a) do people agree that the sense-of-self horror is stronger if the PCs have no reason to believe they are clones, until confronted with the Horrible Truth{tm}, and b) which scenario do you think would work best to accomplish this, or do you have a different scenario to suggest?
Thanks for your time!
~~~~Random
